Oldsmobile Starfire

The first full-fledged Starfire series arrived with Oldsmobile's 1961 models, which were advertised as "Distinguished . . . Distinctive . . . Decidedly New." Introduced as a personal-luxury convertible, the Starfire was designed to compete with the four-passenger Thunderbird and used much the same design formula. (more…)

The Starfire name was first used by Oldsmobile on a one-of-a-kind dream car that was shown at the 1953 Motorama auto show. Named after a Lockheed jet fighter plane, the original Starfire was a 5-passenger convertible that had a fiberglass body, a 200 horsepower (150 kW) Rocket V8 engine, and a wraparound windshield like that used on the top-of-the-line and limited-production 1953 Fiesta 98 convertible. (more…)